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The Daily Vet is a blog featuring veterinarians from all walks of life. Every week they will tackle entertaining, interesting, and sometimes difficult topics in the world of animal medicine – all in the hopes that their unique insights and personal experiences will help you to understand your pets.

Does it matter WHO owns your favorite veterinary practice?

by Dr. Patty Khuly

In Florida, where I live, a veterinary practice may be owned by anyone––a veterinarian, a corporation of non-veterinarian investors, a veterinary technician, an animal welfare organization...indeed, by anyone who cares to set up shop and hire a veterinarian.

In many other states, however, such rules are not in play. Veterinary hospitals must be owned by veterinarians. That usually means veterinarians must be majority stakeholders or the sole owners.

That’s a bit odd, you may think. After all, most human doctors now work for hospitals, clinics and multi-doctor practices that are not necessarily owned by the docs––in fact, increasingly, they’re not.

Why? That’s likely to be the result of the huge expense of owning a medical facility like a large practice or hospital, and the need for non-medical investors to make these places a viable reality.

After all, how many docs coming out from under hundreds of thousands in school loans have the cash to dump into a big investment? How else would docs have the ability to rely on large corporate or not-for-profit hospitals as part of their regular practice lives?

But veterinary medicine is a completely different animal. The roots of the ownership issue in veterinary medicine emerge from our profession’s history as a “cottage industry.” Small players still make up a decentralized industry where the “single-man” practice is alive and well.

Sure, veterinary medicine is changing, but not without a fight from those who would bristle at leaving our history behind. They cite the following important issues as reasons why vet medicine shouldn’t go the way of its human counterpart:

1. Veterinarians know best. Historically, we’ve always owned our own practices because we resent the intrusion of others who don’t understand our profession and who might pervert its approach in ways that are not beneficial for veterinarians themselves.

2. If non-vets can play as practice owners, the increased competition means that fewer veterinarians will be able to own hospitals. And practice ownership is widely perceived by veterinarians to be the only way to make real money in the industry.

3. If we allow non-vets to enter into practice ownership, corporations will make inroads into our professional culture. Corporations are not usually looking out for individual veterinarians and their interests. Moreover, they would degrade our professional culture in the same way corporations have changed human medicine.

It’s hard to counter these reasonable arguments. But here goes...

1. Veterinary medicine has changed. The influx of specialists, the drive for higher standards of care and the expense of veterinary education have conspired to make veterinary medicine far more expensive to invest in.

Hospitals are bigger, fancy equipment is more unaffordable, fewer graduates have the means to save money while paying off their student loans, and in our changing culture, veterinarians are no longer looking to sink their teeth into the financial upside of veterinary medicine (often for lifestyle reasons alone).

2. In 2009‘s version of veterinary medicine there are ways to make so-called, “real” money without owning a practice. Smart associates know how to make themselves indispensable to a veterinary facility. We now command higher prices than we ever did for our dedication to larger practices. We also have more options to “buy in” to these if we care to. Owning a practice is not necessarily where it’s at.

3. If non-vets can’t own hospitals, where else are we going to get the funds to improve or create facilities in the manner YOU, the the pet-owning public, increasingly wants us to?

4. Corporate medicine is not MY friend, but it may be right for many vets and pet owners. All options are good ones as long as the medicine practiced is great and veterinarians aren’t told how to practice medicine or expected to push products.

5. How about veterinary technicians and the spouses of veterinarians? These are invested parties in the profession and they deserve a fair shake, too. Why the heck should they not be able to own a share of the hospital or take over when their boss or spouse retires (for example)?

6. It’s hard to find buyers for hospitals in this economy. What will retiring veterinarians do if the veterinarians newly joining our ranks can’t afford to buy these hospitals and no one else is legally allowed to invest in them?

Hmmm...all good issues to ponder as veterinary medicine catches up with the rest of the 21st century.

Now it's your turn: How does who owns a practice affect you? Your pet's care? Do you even care?

Comments 1

There is a practice in our area that was "won" in divorce. That person is not a veterinarian. That person is the sole owner who makes all policy decisions, orders drugs (including narcotics). Does this person deserve this practice? No. This person is not eligible to practice medicine. If this person wants a veterinary practice he should spend the money and time and go to veterinary school. This person's ownership cheapens the veterinary profession.

Human doctors may not own the hospital they work at but they are controlled by a chief medical officer who makes medical policy and they have a direct say in how the practice is run. ie they are answerable to a doctor not a hotelier or restaurant owner.

The author makes a good point. Veterinary hospitals are not human hospitals.

How many attorneys work for firms that are not controlled by attorneys? Very few I would wager since attorneys don't want non attorneys telling them how to practice the law. Seems to me that the push to have veterinary practices be owned by individuals who want to profit from the hard work of veterinarians is coming from the legal field not the veterinary field or the veterinary client.

I guess everyone wants a piece of the profit, but veterinarians should have more pride in their profession than to sell out to someone who knows nothing about veterinary medicine.